THE CHICAGO CONFERENCE ON TRUSTS.
By T.
DR. E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS, of Chicago, made some observations on the recent conference on trusts that was held in Chicago. What he says is worthy of consideration by any one who is seeking to understand the significance of the present-day social difficulties. Among other things the doctor says:— “The fact of this conference, its personnel, its views, and its results are all worthy of remark. The very fact of so large and representative a gathering to discuss a social question is a sign of the times. It means that the public is in earnest thought about the trust problem. Perhaps there was no need of this proof; perhaps all were aware of the fact before; yet no one who attended a session of the conference, saw its comprehensive character, or felt the earnest spirit of its deliberations, could help being impressed as with a special and emphatic kind of evidence that the trust question is now most deeply engaging the public mind. The fact of the conference means, further, that people are no longer depending alone on legislative discussions, political platforms, or the newspapers to make opinion touching questions of high moment. . . . “The personnel of the conference was noteworthy. . . . All shades of political and of economic belief were represented. The practical politician, the labor leader, the single taxers, the professors of political economy, the reformer, journalists, bankers, clergymen, railroad men, farmers,—all were of the company. Benjamin Tucker, the anarchist, was on the program and said out his whole say, listened to with profound attention from beginning to end and applauded at the end as few of the speakers were. Some bankers and railroad men who listened got off the usual sneer. . . . Yet even this class of hearers paid excellent attention.” The foregoing sentences are strikingly significant. Professor Andrews has made very extended studies of the social questions of this time, and these studies are from the standpoint of his former position of president of Brown University, and his present position as superintendent of the entire public-school system of Chicago. And it is significant for a man like him to say, “The very fact of so large and representative a gathering to discuss a social question is a sign of the times.” He recognizes also, what every one else must see, that “the trust question is now most deeply engaging the public mind.” And this trust question is not through engaging the public mind. The Lord knew and caused it to be recorded nearly two thousand years ago that there would be trust questions in the last days, for He tells of the heaping together of treasures in these times. He also says that the rich men will “weep and howl” for the miseries that shall come upon them. The whole story of this matter is told in full in the first part of the fifth chapter of James. That chapter gives the correct solution of the trust problem. Those who are looking for it from any other standpoint will fail to see the true significance of these times, and will be trampled to ruin in the general scramble that will soon break out between the rich and the poor. It is always well to listen to what God has to say on these social questions. He has spoken in regard to all of the prominent ones that are engaging the minds of men to-day, and He tells what will be the outcome of them all, and what they all signify.